A Century of Julia Child

by Anne Bennett on August 9, 2012

Julia Child in her Cambridge, Massachusetts, kitchen in 1970, in the heyday of her public TV show. The pegboard wall of kitchenware was built by her husband, Paul. Look carefully and you’ll see black outlines of the pans on the board–every pot had its place.

On August 15, 1912 in Pasadena, California, Julia Carolyn McWilliams, later to be known worldwide as Julia Child, was born. As her 100th birthday approaches next Wednesday, I am providing a link to a recipe I posted last year for her iconic Boeuf Bourguignon that appeared in Weight Watchers magazine shortly after the release of the delightful film, “Julie and Julia.”

If you’ve ever made Julia’s original recipe from her “Mastering the Art of French Cooking,” you’ll know that it is a labor-intensive, pot-dirtying, two-day process that results in a fabulous, melt-in-your-mouth French version of beef stew.

The Weight Watcher recipe takes a fraction of the time to prepare and yields close to the same results, although I’m sure Julia would argue with me about that.

It’s also got about half the calories, which is especially nice if you’d like to dip some crunchy french bread into those winey juices or indulge in a little birthday mousse au chocolate. Or both!

You’ve got almost a week to prepare. And don’t forget to have some good red wine on hand to toast Julia on her special day. She loved red wine.

How to toast a cooking legend? Do as she did every week on her show: lift your glass and cheerfully say in unison, “Bon Appetit!”